


Christmas in Diamond City

by PinguinoSentado



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Christmas Fluff, F/F, Fluff, SO MUCH FLUFF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 12:20:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8979436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinguinoSentado/pseuds/PinguinoSentado
Summary: Nora spends her first Christmas with Nat and Piper and showers both of them in presents. Piper, on the other hand, only has one gift for Nora. After all, what do you get the woman who has lost everything?





	

Snow. Nora stared at the sky for a good five minutes before remembering what the white stuff was. It didn’t seem possible. Snow, in the Wasteland. A white Christmas in the Wasteland. It was like some sort of horrible Broadway show about family values being interrupted halfway through by a screening for Mad Max.

Raiders everywhere would be setting aside their rifles and decorating little bits of the Commonwealth with lights, their Charlie Brown Christmas trees stooped under the weight of a single ornament. She wondered if anyone would be opening presents tomorrow morning. Myrna had done a tidy business lately, come to think of it, selling scavenged trees and tiny lights pilfered by a nameless, selfless Vault Dweller. Said Vault Dweller would not have minded a cut of the profits, but a certain reporter had told her in no uncertain terms that it was out of the question.

Either way, those trees and lights had already done wonders to brighten up the market. She had noticed more smiles, even if there was nothing to really smile about. People seemed less inclined to shove each other in the street. Maybe it was the spirit of the season. Maybe it was actually seeing twinkling lights and hearing something over the radio that did not start with the latest dark rumors or a list of the newly missing.

Brightening spirits around the world. Nora grinned. She should get herself a nice, red suit. She already had the sack of toys. Slung over her shoulder in a fashion not unlike dear old Saint Nick’s was a somewhat more battered version of his bag of goodies. And, like the old philanthropist, Nora had herself a list of who had been naughty and who had been nice.

It was awfully short. Nat had been nice. Piper, not so much. Nora giggled to herself. “Piper, you have been very, very naughty this year, and Santa has just the thing for naughty girls.”

Her voice rose in an unfair imitation of Piper’s. “Now listen here, you old coot, I’ve been nothing but nice! I have brought wonderful truth to so many people. I have given freely to the poor and been free with my kindness! Just look at the joy I’ve brought my loving wife!”

At this point, Nora imagined herself finally getting a good night’s sleep somewhere upstairs, out of sight of the imagined Father Christmas and his free press vendetta. Piper looked around in severe panic. “I didn’t ask for much this year, only a new press with which to burn the world!”

Now Santa Nora chortled. “Oh, I have it on good authority you’ve been naughty, dear Piper. This year you will only see one toy from me. Your wife has unwrapped it already, and I think it will go far to keeping you on the nice list next year.”

Her vision now grew somewhat more explicit as Piper returned to the bedroom and found Nora splayed out on the sheets, eager to show Piper the error of her ways and keep her on the path of righteousness. Nora, growing flushed from the thought of it, spurred herself onward through the falling snow.

And straight into a Diamond City guard. Nora pulled up short, jostling his shoulder and nearly losing her precious cargo in the beaten snow. “Whoa there!” he called, slipping and sliding and trying to keep his feet. Nora watched the pipe rifle flail and wondered idly if this was how she finally died, killed by some kid who lost his balance. The gun eventually tumbled harmlessly into the snow, a little Christmas miracle to remind Nora of the virtues of frequent prayer.

Nora, thankful both for the man’s ineptitude and for the blistering cold, helped him to his feet and hoped the red in her cheeks did not betray her inner perversion. “Sorry,” she said between chattering teeth. “Just trying to get home.”

The man nodded, dusting himself off. “It’s nothing, Miss. We all appreciate what you did, bringing in all that Christmas stuff.”

Nora shook her head and shouldered her sack again. “Ah, it’s nothing. It was all Piper’s idea, you know.”

“Well, you did the legwork, and if you ask me, that’s the most important part,” the man said, picking up his fallen weapon. “Say, who was this Santa Claus guy? Moe said he visited houses back before the bombs. Is that true?”

Nora, trying her best to get home but unable to resist a good laugh, hesitated. “Yeah, it is. What else did Moe tell you?”

“Well, he said he rode in a magic sleigh pulled by flying monsters. He had this list of naughty children that he would hunt down every year, taking them back to the North Pole to work in his factories,” the man said, looking around as though afraid the fat monster was coming for him next. Nora began biting her lip, nodding and praying there was more to this wonderful story. Of course there was. It was Moe telling the story. “But it gets better. See, not all the children were naughty. Some were nice. But Santa needs them in his factory anyway, right? So he leaves the parents all sorts of caps and goodies and such as payment. So these parents lose their children but they’re set for life. It makes you think, huh? Dunno if I’d trade my kid for all the caps in the world.”

Nora put a hand on his shoulder. “It does make you think.”

Without another word, she walked away, content that Diamond City was protected by the clumsy, the gullible, and the good-hearted. At least he was trying.

Up the icy stairs she climbed, into the wind that howled so wildly in the small space. Her hair blew out behind her and her eyes felt like they would freeze in her head. The walk down to the street was even worse. By the time she reached Publick Occurrences, she was sure her ears were nothing more than blocks of ice.

The door creaked open and Nora stumbled in to the shrill cries of “Shut the door, it’s freezing out there!”

Nora turned and heaved against the metal until it squealed shut. “Yeah, I noticed!”

The sack tumbled to the floor. Nora looked up to find Piper and Nat huddled in her little nook around a small fire. They had turned, of all things, an old newspaper bin into a fire pit and were having remarkable success heating the entire house with a few logs. Nora could already feel her fingers screaming at suddenly being thawed out.

Piper stood up, her eyes wide. “Look at you! You’re covered in snow!”

Nora looked down. She was caked head to foot in thick, white powder, making her more an Abominable Snowman than a post-apocalyptic Saint Nick. Old Nick had probably never needed to carry a rifle, after all, and Rudolf had only ever had the one head.

Nat didn’t seem to care. She went straight for the sack, digging into it with glee. “What’d you bring, what’d you bring?!”

“Come here, Nora, let’s get you out of those clothes,” Piper started fussing with Nora’s gloves and rubbing new life into her hands.

Nora winked and chuckled. “That comes later, and only if you’ve been nice this year.”

“You and I both know I’ve been nothing but an angel,” Piper purred as she undid Nora’s coat and began stripping off the more frozen pieces of her clothing. “A picture of innocence.”

Before Nora could point out the many sins her wife had committed, Nat emerged from the sack on the floor with a stuffed bear. It never failed to amaze Nora that little Natalie could go from editor-in-chief of the Publick to cuddling a stuffed animal in the span of a minute. “Ooh, he’s so soft. What’s his name?”

“Bernard,” Nora said as Piper continued to pluck snow of Nora’s shirt, her hands always managing to brush the most inappropriate places. When her hands began working their way down her midsection and to her pants, Nora hissed “Five minutes, Piper.”

Piper pouted and yanked at her belt anyway. “You’re not tracking snow all over my floor. You’re lucky I’m not making you sleep outside. Now,” she said, yanking off Nora’s pants to expose badly worn legging. “Go upstairs and find yourself a towel. You’ve got snow in your hair, too.”

The reminder did not go unpunished. With one hand in her hair, Nora showered snow over the unsuspecting Piper. The ensuing yelp was more than worth the cold and embarrassment. As Piper returned to her sister, Nora slumped to the floor, fumbling with the boots Piper seemed to have forgotten.

In the time it took for Nora to actually get her pants properly off and start searching for a towel, Nat had declared Bernard a stupid name, rechristening the hapless bear Sir Sebastian, dug through the sack to find a new pair of boots, and had even managed to find the toy truck Nora had wanted to wrap for her. The girl seemed willing to play with any toy set in front of her. Whether that was just her personality or how little kids survived in the Wasteland was not clear.

Nora found a towel stashed in one of Piper’s drawers and tried in vain to dry her hair before deciding the fire would do the job far better. She walked back down the stairs and pulled the bag of toys away from an unhappy Nat before settling by the fire to distribute her bounty.

Nat was first, of course. Nora had found her a dozen little gifts, none of which were good enough for her. If things were normal, Nora would have blown three months’ pay just getting Nat anything and everything she wanted. Even now, as Nat picked up this little puzzle game Nora remembered from so long ago, Piper was giving her a reproachful look. Nora was spoiling her little sister, and she could not have been happier. If Piper didn’t like it, she could give up her gifts in protest.

That was what changed Piper’s mind. The moment Nora started pulling out badly-wrapped gifts and handing them to Piper, those eyes shone like they were made of sunlight. The first took both hands for Nora to lift it onto Piper’s waiting lap.

Piper looked closer at the paper before cackling. “You used the Publick?”

“No one else was. At least this way someone will read it.”

Piper glared but ripped through the wrapping with uncommon glee. “Always hated that issue anyway,” she said as the wrappings fell to the floor. “Oooooh, Nuka?”

“Not just any Nukas,” Nora hopped up beside her and pointed. “The variety pack. Quantum, Orange, all sorts of new flavors even you’ve never heard of.”

Piper’s eyes sparkled. Her unhealthy addiction, while not as bad as her smoking, was something Nora had no problem nurturing. She took the box in both hands and peered through the little handholds in the side. Nora had done the same thing when she had found it and knew firsthand how tempting those bottles looked. Nuka Cola always seemed to glow in the dark. Before the apocalypse, that might have turned off a few customers.

Well, their loss. Piper plopped the box down and prepared to rip her way into the package before noticing there was a note taped to the top. “Wait, what’s this?”

Nora beamed. “That is the complete list of Nuka cocktails, courtesy of our friends in Nuka World.”

The list was rather extensive and, with the three other cases Nora had lugged all the way back to Diamond City, Piper would have plenty of bottles to experiment with. Piper read down the list, her eyes widening with her smile with every new entry. “Blue, this is amazing. Thank you.”

“I needed something to keep you out of trouble for a few days,” Nora said lightly.

Piper laughed, setting the bottles down beside her and tossing – rather happily – the newspaper into the fire. “All right. What else?”

“Well, since Natalie has already opened most of her gifts –“

“No I didn’t!” Nat shouted from behind her pile of toys.

“I suppose you can open another.” Nora fished into the bag. “All right. I’ve got two more for you. This one is more local. Just a few blocks over, actually. Here.”

Nora pulled another newspaper-wrapped bundle from the bag and gave it to Piper. Again she inspected the article and happily tore it to shreds after finding the title. “You should have just given me a pile of my old papers to rip up.”

“Regret stirring up so much trouble?”

“You don’t know me at all,” Piper said, wadding up some of the wrapping and tossing it into the flames. “Oh, wow.”

The last of the paper fell away as Piper pulled her second present free. Nora smiled at the stack of comic books. “I know how much you like a good read.”

Piper leafed through the stack and read off the titles. “They’re all here. Silver Shroud? The Unstoppables? And –“ Piper hurriedly covered up the more risqué editions Nora had found gather dust in the local comic shop. “I see you were very thorough.”

Nora chuckled. Piper may have been a hard-hitting, deadly-serious journalist by day, but her evenings were filled with the most unreadable trash Nora had ever seen in her life. Nora had actually brought her a few old romance novels from back in the day just to see if she would read them. She still hadn’t found where Piper had hidden them. The secret of Piper’s brilliant journalism seemed to be her love of simpler stories, the kind that ended with too many drinks and too little modesty.

“Well,” Piper said, tucking the comics behind the Nukas and making sure Nat was still distracted by her toys. “Those will make for very interesting reading later. Thank you.”

“Anything for you,” Nora said easily.

Piper waited for Nora to hand her the last present but Nora was not moving. It did not take long for Piper to get up and start rummaging around in the sack. She pulled out a few more of the cases Nora had purloined from Nuka World and set them back in the pile. Watching her haul them out one after the other gave Nora a slight sense of unreality. How many of those had she carried across the Wasteland, again? It had not felt like that many but the pile was nearly as big as her.

“Hey,” Piper said, standing beside the now-empty sack. “You said three. Nat, did you open one of my presents?”

Nat hunched protectively over her pile and shook her head vigorously. “You can share if you want but they all had my name on them!”

Indeed, the pile of tags with Nat’s name written on them was impressive to say the least. Nora felt a sudden surge of warmth to see the little girl hoarding the gift tags. Did they mean that much to her? More likely she was planning on forging Nora’s signature on something important. That was what Piper would do, after all. At least in this world identity theft was somewhat more obvious than a bit of writing.

Nora sat back and smiled. “I did say that, didn’t I?”

Piper folded her arms and scowled. “What? I told you I was good this year.”

“I have a list, Pipes. I’ve checked it twice.”

“You’re hilarious.”

Nora sighed and nodded toward the pile. “Where do you think those came from?”

“You said Nuka World,” Piper said quickly. When Nora said nothing, she cocked her head. “Wait. You went to Nuka World.”

Nora beamed. “I did.”

“What happened?” Piper, her presents completely forgotten, bolted back to her spot by the fire and sat with her arms around her legs. “I heard there were raiders.”

“Three gangs of them,” Nora said proudly. “There was this huge maze full of traps, Deathclaws lurking in the shadows of the park, and a talking Ghoul who could do magic.”

Now Nat was leaning forward. “What kind of magic?”

“He could be standing in front of you, talking, and then –“ Nora snapped her fingers. “Just like that, he was gone. Poof.”

Piper was catching on. Her eyes narrowed and her mouth curved into a smile. “That’s the last present. The story.”

Nora chuckled. “I thought you’d like that.”

“You know me well,” Piper said, getting to her feet. “But you haven’t opened your gift yet.”

She walked back to the stairs and into Nat’s little nook under the stairs. “You got me something?” Nora asked, peering over Nat’s head to see what Piper was holding.

“I picked it out!” Nat chimed, bouncing happily as she tried to get Nora’s attention.

“We picked it out,” Piper corrected, returning to the fire with a little package held in her hands.

Nora brushed the edges. It was actually wrapped in pre-war wrapping paper. Nora poked at the gleaming red paper and gave Piper an awed look. “Where did you find this?”

“You think I just sit at home when you’re not here?”

“No, I think you try to burn the city down when I’m not here.”

“I took time off for this, you ingrate,” Piper said, grabbing for the present. “But if you don’t appreciate it –“

Nora snatched it away and glared until Piper sat down beside her. She carefully undid the twine and tape holding the package together. She had hardly gotten the paper off before she stopped, frozen. “Piper…”

Nat chirped happily from across the fire. “We got it back at Sanctuary! Do you like it?”

Piper had settled quietly in beside Nora as she stared at the book. “You found this?” Nora asked softly. “Where? How?”

“Under one of the shelves,” Piper said as she edged closer. “Back in your old room. We never cleaned it out, so…”

She trailed off as Nora ran her fingers along the edge. God, it felt like just yesterday she had put this away for good, and at the same time it had been hundreds of years since she had even thought about it. “When I saw the house, I thought this was gone. I didn’t even look for it.”

“That’s what you have me for,” Piper said, nudging her gently. “Nothing stays hidden forever, right?”

Nora had to laugh. “I guess not.” Her fingers traced their way down the binding and onto the pictures set into the cover. It was Shaun and Nate playing on the floor of their old home. Shaun was laughing as his father made faces. The picture was a terrible photographer and most of the pictures in here were from Nate or Codsworth, but this one had been good enough to grace the front page.

“I didn’t look through it,” Piper said quickly. “Well, I did. I wanted to make sure everything was clean and still there. But that was all. I – well, I wanted to leave it for you.”

Nora found herself stifling tears. “Thank you,” she managed, clutching the album to her chest and pulling Piper into a hug that could not have been easy on her neck. “Thank you. God dammit, Nate always said I’d drag this thing out if we ever had a fire. He’d be grabbing food and – and whatever else he thought we’d need and I’d be in the room, digging up the family photos.”

Piper put her arm around Nora as she sniffed and tried to get a hold of herself. “I think you did pretty well for yourself, huh? I don’t think anyone else could have done what you did to get here. That’s why I went back. I know who you are now and I love you but I wanted to give you something to remember what it was like before.”

“Thank you,” Nora rubbed a sleeve over her eyes and put the album back in her lap. “Thank you. I can’t – I can’t thank you enough for this.”

Piper gave her a squeeze. “Merry Christmas, Blue.”


End file.
